ACL AN10 vs. ACL AX Dialog
In this post we will have a look at the difference of ACL Analytics 10 and ACL Analytics Exchange regarding Dialogs.
ACL Analytics 10 is the desktop version of ACL, which is used for manual ad-hoc data analytics. ACL Analytics Exchange is the Client-Server solution of ACL. It also uses the ACL kernel and can be used for automating analytic runs and continuous monitoring.
In both ACL products, we will find the possibility to pass user defined values to the analytics or scripts, but the priorities of both possibilities differ a lot.
The two dialogs differ in layout and functionality, as well as they differ in code syntax they have to be written in. Today we will concentrate on layout and functions of the two dialogs.
While dialogs in ACL Analytics 10 come with user-friendly dialog elements, ACL AX concentrates on functionality and scheduling.
ACL Analytics 10
ACL AN 10 allows creating a dialog which shows the user a good overview over all variables which have to be set.
Features:
- Position of dialog elements can be adjusted manually
- Default values for edit boxes
- A dialog can be started at each position within the ACL scripts
ACL Analytics Exchange:
The ACL Analytics Exchange parameters come with more functional settings. From a visual point of view ACL AX does not really focus on user-friendly parameter input. Each single parameter entry has its own page within the parameter dialog wizard in the ACL AX Client. The more parameters the analytic needs, the more wizard pages the user has to click through.
Features:
- Parameter sets:
ACL AX stores its parameters in so called parameter sets, which can be reused for later runs, after they have been created.
- Numeric/Date Parameter:
ACL AX also provides to define the parameter types N, like numeric, and D, like Date, which just allow entries with the expected data type.The date parameter provides a date picker.
Overview:
Dialog Functionality: | ACL Analytics 10 | ACL Analytics Exchange |
Define Positions of dialog elements | YES | NO |
Prompting dialog in the middle of an analytic | YES | NO |
Re-usage of predefined parameter sets | NO | YES |
Type specified edit boxes (D, N) | NO | YES |
Especially for users, which used ACL Desktop for years, it is a big change from ACL AN 10 Dialog to ACL AX parameter settings, but if they have a more detailed look on ACL AX, it comes out, that also the parameter settings do have their benefits, especially when it comes to automated analytic runs in case of continuous monitoring.